Alex Honnold has nothing on these bears. Although I knew of the fearlessness and dexterity of wild sheep and goats on vertical rock slopes (the ones who weren’t so skillful didn’t leave descendants!), I wasn’t aware that bears had joined the rock-climbing club. The information below comes from Stephanie Latimer, who made the video in Big Bend National Park. Mexican black bears are simply a population of regular black bears (Ursus americanus)
Endangered Mexican Black Bears (momma and cub) climb Santa Elena Canyon wall, March 21, 2014. I spotted them while I was kayaking and want to share with you my nature loving, rock climbing, suspenseful satisfaction.
The National Park Service notes that the species is very rare in the park:
There are approximately 8–12 adult bears living in Big Bend, and biologists believe the environment has supported 25 to 30 bears. Though, as with most creatures in a desert environment, fluctuations in their numbers occur from time to time.
There might have been fewer had mom or the cub not been so adept on the rocks!
h/t: Gregory
“Mexican black bear” probably means the subspecies eremicus, which is found in northeastern Mexico and parts of Texas. Another subspecies, whose range is mostly in the US, also ranges into northern Mexico, to the west of eremicus. I’m not certain which would be in Big Bend NP, though, or how valid the subspecies are. In Mexico, eremicus (at least) is considered endangered and is protected.
I saw this on Frans de Waals Facebook timeline. He posts some excellent wildlife photos.
That’s where I found it, too.
One of the basic rules of rock climbing is to move only one hand or one foot at a time. For the most part, even the little guy gets it right. This is pretty amazing.
cub
One of those things you would not believe without the evidence.
I have visited Big Bend twice, and was not fortunate enough to have seen bears (in fact, have never seen bears in the wild anywhere), but everything was bear-proofed, e.g. dumpsters.
I did see Mexican jays, roadrunners, the local subspecies of white-tailed deer (second smallest subspecies, only the Key deer is smaller), collared peccaries and porcupines. Big Bend is beautiful and varied, go if you get the chance.
I’ve seen many bears (southeastern BC) and can attest that they’re wonderfully adept climbers. Still, very fraught – so glad the little guy made it!
Me too – my heart was in my mouth for the little guy!
Amazingly agile. It’s the duty of all evolutionists to appreciate that many thousands of bears have fallen and perished over the millennia so that these ones, the fit, are endowed so exceptionally.
The bears were fleeing the photographer. The mother chose a difficult and dangerous escape route, probably because they had been cornered. Yet Stephanie, the self identified nature lover, doesn’t seem to grasp this. She is not the least bit remorseful and goes on about the sport of rock climbing. People who say that they love nature usually know little of the natural world.
How do you know that was the situation here?
What is the evidence you see in the video for this conclusion?
You are quite right to question my conclusions, as I do not know the details of the incident. Were there more people with the photographer? Was she in a kayak in a river or was she on land? Did the bears have other escape routes which would have gotten them away more easily? I apologize only for my last sentence. The rest is probably sound.
Judging by the angle and perspective in the video, the photographer was at least as high up as the bears, presumably on the other side of the gorge. The probability that the bears were climbing that route to escape from the photographer seems fairly small.
Are bears in fact that intimidated by humans? Many Youtube videos would seem to suggest the opposite.
Black bears in the wild may be sometimes intimidated by humans, if they haven’t seen many before. But more often they are curious and will watch or they will pick up human scents or sounds and quietly leave. Very occasionally they will attack, in which case you cannot escape either by running or climbing a tree, they are better at both than humans are. In general it’s best to avoid close bear encounters and let them avoid you. Brown bears, grizzly bears while they may avoid you are not in the least intimidated by humans and the white bear will sometimes hunt humans.
It depends on the circumstances. I’ve encountered many grizzlies while fishing in Alaska. On the Bristol Bay rivers I’m familiar with (the Kanektok, the Kisaralik, and the Kwethluk), where they’re hunted, they’re extremely shy and run on sight. On Lake Creek, where they’re protected, they have no fear of humans at all.
This is what she said. It sounds like she was below the bears, and 200 to 300 ft away from them when she recorded the footage. I suppose it’s possible that she might have spooked them at a closer range.
“Oh my goodness, thank you all for sharing the excitement of this moment with me. I enjoyed reading your commentary, and love that so many of you are nearly as moved by the experience as me. I have more photos and footage taken of the bears that day (all of which I left with Big Bend National Park), and some of which I may post here at some point. For those of you who didn’t enjoy my commentary, please understand that I recorded this footage at about 200 to 300 feet from the bears, in a relatively narrow canyon, while alone, with no way out but a kayak on maybe 2 foot of water (which was between me and the bears), and the whole encounter was extremely intense for me. For those wondering about the height at which the bears were climbing above the canyon floor, I actually do have footage showing that, but it needs to be slowed down before sharing, as it was taken in too much of a hurry. I would just estimate that the bears were at 150 to 200 feet. They were high enough, that the ground and the bears were too much to fit on my screen at once at my distance. I can say that if they had fallen to the rocky crags, below real damage would have been done, probably to me and them. I don’t know anything about rock climbing terms or lingo, so I cannot answer those questions. I am just so very glad and grateful to have lived the experience and survived to share it. Happy watching, and may you all have many merry and equally moving adventures of your own!”
Hunting is not allowed in national parks, so these bears probably aren’t very afraid of people. If you’ve ever been to Yellowstone or Yosemite you know what I mean.
I wasn’t at all surprised to see those bears climbing. Black Bears are climbing superheroes. Many years ago I was hiking solo in Great Smoky Mountains Nation Park, in dense virgin forest, when I surprised a black bear at close range (and it surprised me). It climbed a huge poplar like Muhammed on a white horse in a space elevator. I was stunned.
I think momma bear was showing junior the ropes, just when he was ready for it.
So, if pursued by a bear, do not climb a tree.
Or a leopard.
cr
Oh. I meant “or if pursued by a leopard…” not “do not climb a leopard”. Sorry.
I think I respectfully disagree here. When pursued by a bear, climbing a leopard may very well be effective, since the bear would avoid a confrontation with so formidable a foe as a leopard. On the other hand, now you’ll have to evade the leopard. 😉
I don’t think it would ever occur to me to climb a leopard😁
I don’t think it’s very possible to climb a leopard. Maybe he meant duck.
Even harder to climb a duck (heehee)
Sadly, this means one more thing I can’t climb to escape a chasing bear.
I was most struck by the evident re-routing the climbing bear did about 1/2 way through the video. Another bear (mom?) walks off to the left and climbing bear changes previous course to get where s/he is. Whether the prior approach was abandoned due to frustration or because of bear cues in the environment, the level of cognition on display is pretty damned impressive.
I bet if the video went 5 minutes longer we would’ve seen climbing bear steal a pic-i-nic basket.
I really can’t add anything of value.
This is fascinating. Thanks for sharing
Videos of bears should be banned from the internet. Showing how they actually look and move is sheer anthropomorphism!